Civil Society Capacity-Building Programme in South Sudan

Deadline: 28-Jun-2024

The European Commission is seeking applications to strengthen local CSOs as independent actors of governance and development of their own rights to engage as actors of good governance and development in South Sudan.

Objectives of the Programme and Priority Issues

• The specific objectives of this call for proposals are:
  • To strengthen the capacities of CSOs/CBOs, grassroots organisations, formal networks and faith-based organisations at the local level through a funding mechanism (e.g financial support to third parties) that provides diversified types of support tailored made to the size and capacity of civil society actors level.
  • To strengthen civil society actors at local and national levels to fulfil their mandates and to improve internal governance and to engage in active participation in governance, social and economic processes.
• The priorities of this call for proposals are: 
  • Put in place an innovative and differentiated funding mechanism for civil society organisations in South Sudan, through the financial support to third parties. To that end, the action will adopt a differentiated approach according to the different types of CSOs (size, level of capacity, mission, etc.) and it may involve thematic service delivery. The foreseen direct and indirect impact of such measures shall be analysed in the concept note.
  • To promote coalition building among CSOs/CBOs cooperation and coordination with local communities for the establishment of local partnerships with grassroots/community-based organisations.
  • Strengthening the thematic expertise of CSOs in the delivery of services and strengthening their expertise, building resilience and self-reliance.
  • Improved capacity and ability of local civil society partners to uphold and promote an enabling environment to promote dialogue and policy influence at national level.
  • Strengthen the capacities of local CSOs to engage in gender equality (tackling gender-based discrimination, gender-based violence, etc.) and youth inclusion (economic, social, political, etc.), particularly local women and youth CSOs.
• The added value elements are:
  • Ensure mainstreaming of cross-cutting elements in the development of the proposal; human rights, promotion of gender equality and equal opportunities, needs of disabled people, rights of minorities, rights of indigenous peoples, youth, environmental/climate change issues.
  • Ensure maximum possible geographical and demographic coverage.
  • Have a specific measure to ensure inclusion of vulnerable and marginalised groups (IDPs, persons with disabilities, etc.).
  • Have specific measures to improve knowledge sharing, cooperation and coalition building among the larger and smaller CSOs/CBOs and the communities.
  • Have a strong monitoring and sustainability strategy to ensure results will be maintained on the long-term.
  • Actions are based on an initiative of local CSOs/CBOs/communities to ensure ownership and a bottom-up approach.

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 3,728,500. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.
• Size of grants
  • Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
    • maximum amount: EUR 3,728,500
    • minimum amount: EUR 3,700,000

Duration

• The initial planned duration of an action may not be lower than 36 months nor exceed 48 months.

Types of Activity

• While the type of activities to support the above priority areas are to be proposed by applicants, the following non-exhaustive list of examples can be given:
  • Establishing a sub-granting scheme or other innovative forms of financial support to civil society that are particularly aimed at small, grassroots organisations, and provide the necessary capacity to support these actors.
  • Supporting CSO organisational capacity related to internal governance; programme, project and financial management; advocacy and communication.
  • Supporting CSO effectiveness, accountability and transparency.
  • Creating an enabling environment for CSOs lobby and advocacy at rural, local and national level.
  • Supporting CSO financial management capacities.
  • Support CSOs initiatives to foster effective, sector specific technical, research, analysis and advocacy capacity.

Location

• Actions must take place in the following country: South Sudan with much consideration for outside capitals and urban centres.

Eligibility Criteria

• Lead applicant(s)
  • In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
    • be a legal person and
    • be non-profit-making and
    • be a specific type of organisation such as: non-governmental organisation, public sector operator, local authority, and
    • be established in a Member State of the European Union or South Sudan or other eligible countries as stipulated in the NDICI-Global Europe regulation,
    • be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the co-applicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary and
    • experience of fragile context and presence in South Sudan and
    • must have previous experience in the field of Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP)
  • International organizations are not eligible for this call.
• Co-applicant(s)
  • The minimum number of co-applicants to be involved in the action is one. For the co-applicants, preference shall be given to national or sub-national South Sudanese civil society organisations.
  • Co-applicants participate in designing and implementing the action, and the costs they incur are eligible in the same way as those incurred by the lead applicant.
  • Co-applicants must satisfy the eligibility criteria as applicable to the lead applicant.
  • Co-applicants must sign the mandate form.
  • If awarded the grant contract, the co-applicant(s) (if any) will become beneficiary(ies) in the action (together with the coordinator)
• Affiliated entities
  • The lead applicant and its co-applicant(s) may act with affiliated entity(ies).
  • Only the following entities may be considered as affiliated entities to the lead applicant and/or to co-applicant(s):
    • Only entities having a structural link with the applicants (i.e. the lead applicant or a co-applicant), in particular a legal or capital link.
    • This structural link encompasses mainly two notions:
      • Control on the annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements and related reports of certain types of undertakings:
        • Entities affiliated to an applicant may hence be:
          • Entities directly or indirectly controlled by the applicant (daughter companies or first-tier subsidiaries). They may also be entities controlled by an entity controlled by the applicant (granddaughter companies or second-tier subsidiaries) and the same applies to further tiers of control;
          • Entities directly or indirectly controlling the applicant (parent companies). Likewise, they may be entities controlling an entity controlling the applicant;
          • Entities under the same direct or indirect control as the applicant (sister companies).
      • Membership, i.e. the applicant is legally defined as a e.g. network, federation, association in which the proposed affiliated entities also participate or the applicant participates in the same entity (e.g. network, federation, association,) as the proposed affiliated entities.

For more information, visit EC.